Shoot
by matrixaffiliate
Summary: Ginny knows that Harry is amazing, and she's going to make sure he knows it too. A continuation of my stories Circumlocute and Serve. For Pottermum, who thought this would be fun. :) A Post-Deathly Hallows Harry/Ginny fluff story. One-shot. Rated T. Everything belongs to JKR.


**A/N: I wrote a story back in September called Circumlocute and Pottermum thought it would be fun to see Harry and Ginny learn to play Muggle sports together. Th****ese little one-shots are**** for her. ****If you're looking for the first installment to this set, it's called Serve and I wrote it in March.**

Tennis wasn't something that Harry and Ginny invested a lot of time in after their introductory lesson, mostly because Ginny was preparing to head back to Hogwarts as the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain. They didn't get the time to learn any more Muggle sports at all that year. And Ginny had honestly forgotten about it all when she finished Hogwarts and returned home with high hopes of playing professional Quidditch.

But a week after Ginny had returned home, Harry showed up at the Burrow on a Saturday morning and told her to get into something she could run in. He hadn't forgotten about her initial desire to learn Muggle sports, and Ginny laughed as he proudly told her that they were going to learn to play basketball.

Ginny loved learning more about the Muggle world. It was a part of Harry. After everything that happened, Harry was determined to lead by example and straddle both worlds. He was going to prove it could be done and should be done, and Ginny loved it! She loved going to Muggle restaurants and wearing Muggle clothes. She adored Muggle music and art and literature. And Harry's telly was pretty slick too. So Ginny felt justified in her bolting up the stairs in excitement as she changed out of her jeans and into her track clothes.

The building Harry took her to reminded Ginny of one of the warehouses Harry talked about, except this one was really nice inside. Ginny could see her reflection on the hardwood floors they were so shiny. But what Ginny liked best of all was the orange ball she kept seeing everywhere. It looked a bit like a Quaffle.

"I think I'm going to like this one," Ginny grinned up at Harry who chuckled and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

"I hope you do."

Their instructor was Omar and he towered over Ginny. She was pretty sure he was taller than Ron, no small feat in her mind. He started out by teaching them how to do something called dribbling.

"This isn't the same kind of dribble when you play football." Omar grinned. "We don't want our feet to touch the ball at all."

Ginny smiled at having a clue what Omar was talking about. Dating Dean had left her with some useful information apparently.

"Now," Omar continued, "you'll want to open your hand all the way and wrap it around the ball, we want your palm to touch the ball along with all of your fingers."

Ginny knew she had small hands, but she'd never had too much of an issue with a Quaffle. This basketball, however, was a completely different beast. The ball immediately slipped and started to roll away from her.

"Got it," Harry stuck his ball under his arm and ran after her ball.

"Thanks," Ginny took the ball but her enthusiasm was waning and quickly. She didn't fancy a repeat of playing tennis.

"Hey," Omar smiled at her, "you can do it. Look we're going to start bouncing it off the floor here and just using our palm to keep it right next to us." He started bouncing the ball to demonstrate. "You don't need to be able to hold the ball with one hand, just control it."

Ginny bit her lip and started bouncing the ball up and down. It was harder than Omar made it look, but it was definitely easier than trying to hold that ball with just her palm. Ginny took a bit of selfish glee in the fact that this wasn't coming naturally to Harry either. Omar let them practice bouncing the ball for a couple of minutes before he had them start walking while bouncing the ball. That was when Ginny got to witness why Harry had never wanted to play Muggle sports until she had expressed interest in it.

Harry really struggled with dribbling the ball at a walk. The ball would hit his shoes or he'd hit it too hard and send it flying or too soft and it would lose the bounce entirely. Ginny was no whiz at it at first, but a couple of laps around the court and she had the hang of it and was jogging as she dribbled within five minutes. But each minute that she improved, Harry seemed to be stuck at square one. It was strange for Ginny, to see Harry struggle like this. Aside from the life and death experiences she'd seen Harry work through, Ginny hadn't seen him struggle, and especially not at a sport. Where Quidditch was concerned, Harry was a savant that felt he was more needed fighting evil than being a Quidditch player. But things were obviously very different for him in the world of Muggle sports.

Omar watched Harry before putting on an encouraging smile. "Let's go over how to shoot the ball and make a basket."

Ginny nodded and gave Harry an encouraging smile. He returned her smile with a forced one. Ginny's heart immediately contracted. Harry wasn't having fun. Harry wasn't enjoying this. Harry was being pushed back to memories of his unhappy childhood. And he was doing it because he wanted Ginny to have fun, to have what she wanted.

"You want to aim for the red box on the board above the hoop." Omar interrupted Ginny's panicked musings. "If you can hit that box dead center the ball will go through the hoop every time." Omar started to show them the proper way to shoot the ball and Ginny took the opportunity to whisper to Harry.

"For every basket I make," she whispered into his ear, "you get a slice of treacle tart."

Harry gave her a sidelong glance. "And what about if I make a basket? What then?"

"Then I get a slice," Ginny smirked as she followed Omar's invitation to give it a try. Her ball hit the front of the hoop and went flying.

"Nice try," Omar caught her ball, "keep aiming at the box after you've let the ball fly and that will help."

Ginny took her ball back as Harry stepped up, his melancholy replaced by concentration. His ball went to the right and above the hoop, bouncing off the backboard.

"Keep both eyes open, Harry," Omar retrieved the stray ball and tossed it back.

And on it went. Ginny and Harry shooting baskets back and forth while Omar gave them pointers until finally, Ginny figured it out. It happened when she realized shooting baskets was like showing off when no one was around to play Keeper, finding all the different ways you could score a goal. And that realization led to her first basket.

Ginny whooped and jumped in the air, raising her fist above her head. Harry cheered and clapped and Ginny laughed as he winked at her.

Ginny had earned Harry a tart and a half when he finally made his first basket. She ran to him and kissed him soundly before pulling back and grinning.

"That was spectacular!"

Harry shook his head, "You've earned me nearly two tarts, Gin. That's spectacular."

"Great job," Omar smiled, "the lesson is over but feel free to shoot around for a bit. Have a great day." He waved as he took his ball out the door to where the reception and check-in was.

Harry turned back to Ginny as he walked away. "I'm sorry I didn't manage to earn you anything but a slice."

His face was quickly returning back to that melancholy and Ginny refused to lose this battle. She pressed up on tiptoe and pulled Harry into a passionate kiss, running her fingers into his hair and her tongue along his as she pressed herself against him. Harry molded against her, returning her fervor as his arms crushed her into him. After several moments they both came up to breathe and Ginny looked up into those emerald green eyes that had so captivated her that first day on the platform.

"You have infinite value. You are a brave, strong, and loving man. You are worth everything."

Harry stared down at her, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

"I mean it, Harry. I love you and it has nothing to do with whether or not you can play Muggle sports. I love you for who you are, and you are amazing."

Harry pulled her to him again, lips crashing into hers as he poured his soul into that kiss and Ginny drank it up like the elixir of life. She was going to make sure that Harry knew he was so much more than any of this, the sports, the memories from his childhood, all of it was nothing compared to who he really was. And she would do it because he deserved to know. He deserved to know because he always made sure she knew she was more than potential Quidditch offers and NEWTS results and older brothers. He always made her feel loved, and she'd be damned if he didn't know she wanted him to feel loved as well.

"I love you too," Harry panted after pulling back, "but I don't love that we're in public right now."

Ginny giggled, he was such a boy sometimes, and she loved it. "Well, we should definitely do something about that."

Harry rested his forehead against hers and sighed, "I don't know what I did to deserve you."

Ginny shook her head, "You're ridiculous. You deserve everything."

They slipped out of the building and Apparated back to Harry's flat. Eventually Ginny remembered the treacle tart, but Harry just shook his head.

"You're better than any treacle tart."

"Even my mum's?" Ginny grinned.

Harry leaned down and kissed her slowly, like he was savouring her, "Even your mum's."

Ginny pulled him back down to her intent on capitalizing on this realization that she was better than even her mum's treacle tart.


End file.
